02/17/2025
Keio University School of Medicine
Keio University Hospital
A research group led by Assistant Professor Ryota Kobayashi, Senior Assistant Professor Satoshi Matsuda, Associate Professor Hirofumi Kawakubo, and Professor Yuko Kitagawa from the Department of Surgery (General and Gastroenterological), Keio University School of Medicine, and Senior Assistant Professor Kohei Nakamura and Professor Hiroshi Nishihara from the Center for Cancer Genomics and Advanced Therapeutics (C-CAT), has discovered that it is possible to predict the prognosis of esophageal cancer by determining the presence of minimal residual disease (MRD). This is achieved by detecting circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) from esophageal cancer in preoperative blood samples using a diagnostic technology (liquid biopsy) that matches genetic mutations in the primary tumor with those in the blood. This discovery is expected to enable treatment strategies tailored to individual patients by sensitively predicting the risk of recurrence following the complex treatment course for esophageal cancer, which often involves a combination of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy. The findings of this study were published online in the scientific journal European Journal of Surgical Oncology on January 21, 2025. The utility of postoperative circulating tumor DNA in the blood of esophageal cancer patients was previously reported in the scientific journal Annals of Surgical Oncology on February 14, 2023.
Keio University Hospital is currently conducting this testing method as Advanced Medical Care A for patients with resectable advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.
Please see below for the full press release.